


Warden's wish

by RedNameless



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 17:57:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1122705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedNameless/pseuds/RedNameless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my head canon on what happened in The Fade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warden's wish

**Author's Note:**

> My first fan-fic ever. It always strikes me as odd how Wardens from Origins see Duncan in the Fade, instead of whoever were in their past. Duncan isn't even that great of a person. He was just there at the right time. And so, I made this.

The fade changed as Morrigan stepped away from what’s left of the demon who pretended to be her mother. Its incompetence and foolishness proved to be most annoying. In the end she decided slaying it would be far quicker option to escape the fade than reason with its pathetic insistence on deceiving her. She walked forward, adamant to finding the rest of the group. Not long after, a big wooden gate appeared before her. A log was abandoned near the open gap between the gates. The gate, stained with splatters of blood and scorch marks, seemed had been forced open.  As she neared it, walls started to build around her, and the greenish ground of the fade before her turned to stone, forming the inner ward of a castle. Fire started burning behind her. She stepped in to find the main hall of a castle, its high ceilings and grand pillars standing sturdy, a fire still burning in the fireplace on the far side of the room. A gruesome scene marred the floor of the once great hall. Dozens of armored soldiers’ body lay still, blood spills littered the floor’s hall, seeping into the great rugs. The air smelled of fresh blood and she could hear fighting and screaming from a far and the loud crackle of fire burning down the wooden supports of the other parts of the castle.

She readied her staff and quickly walked towards the nearest door on her right, noting the dead bodies wore different amours, bearing different heraldries. She caught a glimpse of the image of a bear on a dead soldier’s shield. She moved towards the sound of fighting on her left as she stepped through the door, finding a hallway filled with half dozen soldiers. She readied her ice spells as. A long sword pierced through a soldier’s throat as he stepped into the open room on the left of the hallway. He fell dead on his knees, his body held up by the sword still stuck in his throat. The other soldiers hesitated and Morrigan unleashed a barrage of ice, freezing solid 3 men nearest to her. The rest of the men whipped their attention towards her, realizing they have been flanked. As the men approached her, a shadow moved in between them, a dagger stabbed one soldier’s neck base and a moment later a long sword penetrated through other man from behind. Whoever stabbed the last soldier kicked the dead body of her sword, and shot her a warning look. Her leather armor, clearly made to fit her, was splattered with blood.

“Warden.” Morrigan greeted the now seemingly less familiar woman.

Alex looked at her, sword at the ready. “I’m not a warden.” She replied coldly, bloodlust in her eyes. “I do not know why you are here. Leave. This is not your place, nor it is your fight.” She continued as she turned and walked back into the room, sheathing her sword and dagger onto her back.

Morrigan went after her into what seemed to be a kitchen, before blood splattered the floor and surfaces. “Do you not remember me, Warden? Do you know where this is?”

The woman froze in her place, then continued to walk towards the closed door at the end of the room. “Home” she said. “Or what’s left of it.” She added under her breath.

“This is not. This is The Fade. Continue to believe that and we may never get out. We must leave, Warden. Now. Before the demons come.”

Alex ignored her and opened the door, revealing a bloodied old man and an old woman in leather armor tending him. “How’s he mother?”

The old woman spoke up “I’m afraid he’ll…“ but the old man cut her sentence. “Pup, leave while you can; leave me and take your mother. Tell your brother... The King will bring justice… I cannot last much longer.” He said between his short dying breath.

“I’m not leaving!” Alex said, her tone desperate and frustrated. “Mother said she will stay and fight. I will do the same. If I can hold them out long enough, soon they will run out of men and abandon this attack.”

“You are hoping for the impossible, Warden! This attack will never end. The demon in control of this realm will not make it so. We must leave. The longer we stay here, the weaker we will be in the real world.” Morrigan spoke up, unable to stay her tounge upon hearing such blind hope.

Alex turned to her. “I’m NOT the warden.” Her voice was that of calm anger. She turned back towards her mother and said, “Do what you can for father, mother, I will watch the hallway. I will make sure none of them get past the door. I’m not going out without a fight.” She left the room and gently closed the door, and marched towards the hallway.

“Morrigan.” Anger colored her tone. She said her name, but did not call her. “Even in my dreams, the truth chases me.” She looked up towards the strip of clear night sky between the ruined castle walls. “I know this is a dream the moment I woke up on that bed, Iona in my arms. I wanted to make it right this time. Stay and fight. Do the right thing, even if it’s just a dream…” She paused, inhaling deeply and slowly letting her breath loose “…and then you came.” She said with a dejected tone, which for some reason causes pain to prick in Morrigan’s chest.

“Insisting on staying is still foolish. You know the attack will never end. Denying it won’t change anything. We have more important things to do.” Morrigan insisted.

Alex looked at her, clearly annoyed at her insistent nagging. “If you are so insistent on making me leave, why not purge this whole place? You are a mage. I hear mages can control the fade.”

“This is your dream, Warden. The only way forward is for you to let it go, so we both can leave this scene and find the demon that dragged us all into the Fade and kill it. That is the only way we will escape the fade. And it is not going to happen, unless you are willing to move forward and find that demon instead of dwelling in this terrible dream. The longer we are here, the more likely are we to die.”

“I’ve never wanted to be a Warden.” After a long pause, Alex answered her, speaking the word “Warden” with barely concealed disgust. She fell silent, her eyes wandered back to the night sky as she listened to the sound of burning fire around them. “You saw how my father was… A Warden came to my father requesting candidates for The Order. When the soldiers attacked, he pushes my father into giving me to The Warden’s as he pleaded for me and mother’s safety through his dying breath. He didn’t even have the decency to tell father what being a Warden truly means.” Another pause “There’s no honor in joining such order.” She averted her eyes away and added, her tone soft, almost pleading “So please, stop calling me that.”

“We still have to leave, Alex” Morrigan replied her, as gently as she could, as she now realizes what everything here meant to her. “Dying here would deem all that happened to be for nothing.”

Alex looked back to the closed door in the end of the room and after a moment, turned towards Morrigan. “You are right.” she said with a heavy sigh.

Together they turned towards the main hall. The walls, the fire, the stones they walked on slowly became tinted with the eerie green of the fade as they make their way towards where Morrigan first arrived.

As they stepped through the great wooden gate, Alex said, softly, her voice wavering “Thank you, Morrigan. For calling me by my name.”

Morrigan, uneased by the feelings reflected in her voice, and unsure how to respond, replied, “I… you are welcome.”


End file.
